School, St. Louis center getting students to think about science

A partnership between Scott City schools and the St. Louis Science Center is helping the schools focus on science as an important part of the curriculum.

Representatives from the science center took part in a family science night Thursday at Scott City Middle School. Students in kindergarten through eighth grades and their families visited a portable planetarium and experiment exhibits provided by the science center.

The partnership began over the summer when three representatives of the science center trained Scott City's elementary and middle school teachers on the science inquiry method, which gets students to think about the procedures in science experiments, said Sarah Bradshaw, Scott City Middle School's seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher.

Middle school principal Mike Umfleet said teachers have been incorporating what they learned from the training into the classroom learning this year, and it has worked well in the middle and elementary schools.

In the science inquiry method, students are given equipment and a goal for an experiment and asked to work it out on their own, Bradshaw said.

"Some of them are designing and engineering, and some of them are figuring out answers to questions. It gets them in a deeper level of thinking," she said.

According to Bradshaw, the method gets students thinking in terms of real-world experiences.

"If they are given everything in their life, they won't think on their own," she said.

The partnership formed after the schools applied for but did not receive a grant for the training, Umfleet said.

"But we liked the idea of it so much we found a way to make it work anyway," he said. The schools used funds available for school improvement methods instead.

Bradshaw said the partnership with the science center is helping the schools keep science implemented into the curriculum.

"Since No Child Left Behind, the main focus of our testing has been math and communication arts, and we want to keep a focus on science, because there are so many job fields that deal with math and science," she said.

Students in third through eighth grades are tested annually in math and communication arts with Missouri Assessment Program tests. The scores are used to measure schools' effectiveness under the No Child Left Behind Act.

eragan@semissourian.com

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